


What's cookin' good lookin'?

by StrangeNoise



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Banter, Cooking, Established Relationship, Fluff, Kissing, Learning how to cook, M/M, Some drama involving onions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-02-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:01:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22586032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrangeNoise/pseuds/StrangeNoise
Summary: Nines wants to do something nice for Gavin and cooks for him. Unfortunately, he isn't very good at it and Gavin has to step in and teach his boyfriend a thing or two
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Comments: 4
Kudos: 94





	What's cookin' good lookin'?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Orangebubble](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orangebubble/gifts).



> This was a commission by Orangebubble on twitter and it was lots of fun to write :D Hope everyone enjoys!

Gavin returned home to a smell he couldn’t quite place. It seemed familiar but off at the same time and he had no idea, where it could be coming from. Toeing off his shoes and hanging up his jacket, he progressed through the house to find the smell coming from the kitchen, where his partner, Nines, was sitting at the table and warily eyeing the oven. 

“You cooking something?”, Gavin asked curiously, bending down to peek into the oven. It was indeed turned on and there was a baking dish in there. What was supposed to be in there, Gavin couldn’t make out from the distance, though. He was far too confused by the fact _that_ Nines was cooking something to question _what_ he was cooking. The android wasn’t designed to do household duties and while he occasionally helped Gavin keep his flat clean, he had never cooked before. 

“I am”, Nines replied curtly. His LED was blinking yellow at his temple and Gavin had a feeling that should worry him. But he shoved that thought aside to grab a beer from the fridge and then sit down at the table. 

“How come?”, he wondered, “Not that I don’t appreciate you cooking. I’m just confused because you’ve never done it before.”

“I noticed that after you come home from work you’re often not in the mood to make yourself dinner”, Nines explained and he wasn’t wrong there. While the overall crime rate stayed somewhat steady, the number of crimes against androids was skyrocketing ever since they had been granted rights and Gavin, as a member of the newly founded team specialized in anti-android crime was busier than ever. He often returned home after several hours of overtime and barely even got to see Nines, who usually took the night shifts at the DPD. After a day of work, Gavin was hardly ever in the mood to cook. “Therefore you either have leftovers, order take-out or eat nothing at all. And since neither of those options are particularly healthy, I thought I could help you by occasionally cooking something for you.” 

“Wow, that’s actually really cute”, Gavin commented with a smile and pressed his foot to Nines’ shin under the table. The first time he had done that, some defense-protocol had activated itself and Nines had kicked him so hard, Gavin had barely been able to walk for a week. But nowadays, Nines seemed to enjoy this kind of contact, however weird it was. Before they could talk more about Gavin’s eating habits and what Nines was doing to fix them, the timer went off on the oven and the android hurried over to retrieve Gavin’s dinner.

“So, what has my favorite tin can prepared for me?”, the detective wanted to know and the android flipped him off without even a glance. Gavin snorted and took a sip of his beer while Nines plated his dinner. 

“I made lasagna for you”, Nines said as he placed the plate and cutlery in front of Gavin. The human eyed his dinner and decided that something about it was off. He couldn’t quite say what it was but something seemed strange. There were large chunks of _something_ that Gavin couldn’t make sense of and there was decidedly too little cheese. But in the end, Gavin decided he could still give Nines’ dish a chance. Just because it was weird-looking didn’t mean it had to be weird-tasting. 

So Gavin dug in and took a bite. Then he froze. 

“Do you like it?”, Nines asked across the table, his LED still blinking a nervous yellow rhythm and by now Gavin began to understand the android’s nervousness. The lasagna wasn’t too bad actually. It was just that it wasn’t any good either. Gavin chewed on one of the chunks he had found in the dish and quickly found it was a massive piece of onion. Not wanting to upset his boyfriend, Gavin swallowed everything and washed it down with several long gulps of beer. Then, he began to dissect his lasagna to find more of the enormous onion chunks.

“So, I’m guessing you don’t like it”, Nines said tonelessly and with burning embarrassment, Gavin realized he had neglected to answer his boyfriend. 

“Sorry, but…no, not really”, he admitted and watched as a look of disappointment spread across the android’s face, “It’s just really bland. And I don’t know why you cut the onions like this but the pieces are definitely too big.” 

“I’m sorry, Gavin”, Nines muttered, his LED going red at the detective’s words, “I’m not equipped with any cooking protocols and most of those aren’t compatible with my model anyway. I assumed cooking couldn’t be that hard so I tried it on my own. I found this recipe called ‘Mom’s lasagna’ in your kitchen and gave it a try. I’m sorry it isn’t to your liking.” 

Now Gavin well and truly felt like an asshole. His boyfriend wanted to make some nice dinner for him by following one of Gavin’s mom’s recipes, one of his favorites actually, and here he was criticizing it. Granted, there was no use in lying either since Nines would probably figure out from his vitals or there was no way Gavin could convincingly lie about liking this lasagna for the rest of his life. Still, he could have chosen a more tactful approach to the whole situation. Gavin gnawed at his bottom lip and had another sip of beer before turning back to his boyfriend.

“Look, I’m sorry. I was a jerk about this”, he said and cleared his throat, “You wanted to do something nice for me and I rip into you like this. It was uncalled for.”

“It’s fine”, Nines insisted, “I’d rather you be harsh with me than lie to me.” 

“Still, it was a dick move”, Gavin argued. For a moment, neither of them said anything. “But if you want to, I could try and teach you how to make a good lasagna. You know, I didn’t have any fancy cooking protocols either and I managed to learn. So maybe I can, like, pass my knowledge down to you or something.” 

“I think I’d like that”, Nines agreed, a smile budding on his face, “If it’s not too much effort for you. Me cooking for you was to take a task off your shoulders, not add another one to it.” 

“Bullshit, it’s gonna be fun”, Gavin said with a grin, “Can’t wait to finally be better at something than you.” 

Nines rolled his eyes at him but the android already seemed much more relaxed than a few moments before.

“Until then, I ordered you orange chicken. It should arrive in about 20 minutes”, the android stated. 

“Sweet! You’re the best!”, Gavin replied and leaned across the table to press a kiss to Nines’ cheek.

“So, first of all, I’m going to show you how to properly cut an onion”, Gavin said as he cleaned and peeled two onions. It was a Sunday two weeks after the lasagna-incident and both of them had somehow managed to have a day off at the same time. They had slept in and then gone grocery shopping together and now they were in Gavin’s kitchen, ready to make another attempt at lasagna. 

Gavin felt a little stupid having to explain how to cut onions to an android, who could probably overthrow an entire government with nothing but the knife he was currently holding but Nines was more than willing to learn and the look of concentration on his face was the most endearing thing Gavin had ever seen.

“Like this?”, Nines asked, chopping the onions into far tinier pieces than the last time. 

“You’re doing great”, Gavin assured him and pressed a quick peck on Nines’ cheek, “I knew you’d learn this super quickly.” 

“I’m a military-grade android. I should probably go to Cyberlife and get myself deactivated if I couldn’t learn how to cut onions”, Nines groused but Gavin could tell the praise still boosted his ego. 

After the onions were chopped, Gavin let Nines take care of cutting the garlic too because the android’s fingers wouldn’t get as smelly as his. While Nines was busy, Gavin took care of preparing the pots and pans and making sure his curious cat, Skittles, didn’t climb all over the countertop in pursuit of food. 

Gavin then made Nines watch over the onions, garlic and meat they cooked in a pan while he prepared the bechamel sauce – which meant he opened the pre-packaged kind and poured it into a small pot. 

“But your mother’s recipe says-“, Nines began to argue but Gavin quickly silenced him with a kiss. 

“I know what my mom’s recipe says”, he muttered against the android’s lips, “But I’m lazy and there’s other things I’d like to do with you today than making lasagna.” To emphasize his point, Gavin slapped Nines’ ass with a grin and the android rolled his eyes at him. 

“I’m sure your mother would be thrilled to hear you’re making changes to her recipe so you can have sex with me sooner”, Nines commented dryly, then turned back to his pan to make sure nothing was burning. 

Gavin chuckled to himself and continued preparing ingredients for the sauce. When he started adding seasoning, Nines watched him with big eyes. 

“I put in much less than this”, the android admitted while Gavin poured a generous amount of an Italian herb mix into the sauce, “I thought since I couldn’t taste it myself, less would be better. But I guess I just made it bland.” 

“Don’t beat yourself up about it. Seasoning’s something everyone has to learn”, Gavin told him and switched from the herb mix to salt, “My first attempts were no good either. But I’m sure you’ll learn with time.” 

“Since I just measured exactly how much you put into the sauce, I’m confident I’ll be able to properly recreated it next time”, Nines announced and smiled proudly. 

“Smartest tin can in the world”, Gavin commented with a chuckle and finished the sauce, “I wish I could’ve learned it that way.”

“Don’t beat yourself up about it. It’s not your fault you’re just a meat bag that has to learn things the old-fashioned way”, Nines retorted and earned himself a light punch to the shoulder in return. Gavin was grinning all the while, though. He enjoyed the fact that his boyfriend was slowly developing his own sense of humor and that Nines, who usually got upset about failure a lot, seemed to get over his lasagna-disaster in record time. 

They finished the lasagna between banter and kisses and soon enough, Gavin sat on the couch with Nines, enjoying a perfect lasagna, while the android had taken on the task of fighting off Gavin’s cats, who were hellbent on getting a bite of lasagna themselves. 

“You know, I truly enjoyed cooking with you today”, Nines said after a while and Gavin found himself agreeing, “If you’re not opposed to it, I’d love to repeat it.”

“Hell yeah!”, Gavin agreed immediately, “I get to spend quality time with my boyfriend and get a nice meal out of it. Win-win for me!” 

Next to him, Nines chuckled but Gavin could tell the android was already researching and downloading a thousand recipes he was going to suggest to him in the upcoming days. Of all the things Gavin had expected they would do together, cooking had been pretty low on the list. But he wasn’t going to complain. He was stupidly in love with Nines and would take every activity he could get to be close to the android – even if it was making food and then protecting it from two hungry cats. 


End file.
